JOSHUA TRACHTENBERG JEWISH MAGIC AND Sal SUPERSTITION ober mn DW A Study in Folk Religion BEHRMAN’S JEWISH BOOK HOUSE PUBLISHERS» NEW YORK 1939ono. uae oxen of i i yb SAE aver ne ees ee be Deport ax Siuow TeachesFOREWORD 1 UsbERSTAND a poople—and enough i Memankind is to seeks whole. "Tie sheen a peer fie ak where Jews are concerned, forthe vison ofthe world has bez ob> sare by dary biastnted spectacles. lyon the one hand, Chiio- Togial and antt-Sonte prejudices have fvealed only an infamous ‘otde of blaspemer and parasites om the ther, historical perspec lve limited by Serprre has ioe an exalted band of prope hounded and perccuted as prophets must be for thei vison and temerity. Bere there two extemecr—which have alike doomed Jews to the ambappiee of carers a normal people with all he ifulteand vitwesof humanity, ar purued te nena couse rough tory, however abpormal were the condos agaist which i struggled. This perhaps the greet achieveren of Jewry, that in the face af an envionment perensaly hale a8 any people ths bad to confront, it as all maintained is balance, i has ro tained & normal member of the human fay even to owning, Bong with is peculiar virtues and faults, the common aberrations ofthe Buman face, “The Jewish people didnot cease to ive and grow when the New ‘Testament was Weten, The owo thousand years sce ave seen & steady expansion and development of ie iner Ie. New relgioat anceps were advanced, the old were elaborated and aay the {lft hasbeen tomate he something more than concep to weave ‘hr into te pattern of daly ie, wo that the Jew might ive his Felon. This was the say minindersnod “Teall” af Judaism ‘But alongside his ormal development there we» constanlabor tion of what we may cll "folk rligon” ideas and prac hat never met with the wholeeart approval of the religous leaders, ‘but which enjoyed sich wide popalarty that they ould at beat iether excluded from the ld of eelgion. OF this sre were the Ties concerning demons and angel, and the many supestious aes based on ths lets, whieh by more o lee devious routes fctualy became a part of Jadaim, and on the periphery of the re Tius lie the practicesof magi, which never broke eomplcly with the tenes of the Fit, yet tetched them alm to the breaking vi